Dentist Los Gatos What Happens when a Drill Bit is broken in a Tooth from a Root Canal?

A root canal is an unpleasant experience for most people. It must not be painful.But even a successful, smooth procedure isn't exactly fun. 90 percent of root canals are successful and require no follow-up treatment.

Every medical intervention has risks and no procedure is perfect. It is completely possible, with a root canal, for a drill bit or file to break off and get caught in the tooth. The good side of the bad news is that because it happens frequently enough, there are ways to deal with this problem.

In a root canal the procedure involves the decaying or infected tooth being salvaged by entering the tooth, cleaning out the pulp, sealing off the tooth cavity and then filling and crowning the tooth.

The patient will be numbed first by a dentist or an endodontist who is a dentist who specializes in problems inside the tooth. Usually, he or she will numb an entire side of the mouth, including the tongue. By drilling into the tooth, the dentist opens it up.

Small, specially designed file instruments are used to enter and clean out each of the tooth's roots - eventually reaching the bottom and taking out the pulp. This takes out all feeling in the tooth while leaving it intact.

During a root canal, if a bit or a file breaks off during the root canal, then the dentist will do a few things. He or she will first try to remove it on the spot. If this isn't possible, the dentist will most likely complete the rest of the procedure on the unaffected roots so that all but the clogged one have been properly treated.

A general dentist will likely close up and put a temporary filling on the tooth and send the patient to an endodontist who specializes in these problems.The dentist will probably also put the patient on a course of antibiotics.

After numbing the patient; an endodontist will go back into the tooth. To try and remove the lodged instrument; the dentist may use some specialized tools. To get past the lodged bit, the endodontist may use some very small tools.

If one of these small files can work around the bit, then the endodontist may be able to complete the procedure, leaving the bit in place. It might not matter that the foreign object remains once the canal is completely cleaned and the pulp removed.

When the pulp is not removed or the canal is not completely cleaned because the specialized tools fail then the endodontist may have to attempt an apicoectomy. This involves removing some of the underlying bone so that he or she can enter the canal of the tooth from the outside by cutting open the gum outside the affected tooth.

Any pulp is removed and the part of the canal that was not previously reachable is cleaned after the end of the canal is removed by the endodontist. Then he or she will seal up the end of the canal with artificial materials and close the gum.

The bone that was removed will usually grow back over time. The gum will heal after it is sutured. Antibiotics will be prescribed for the patient as like in other procedures. Post-surgical pain medication will probably be needed for this procedure because of its invasive nature.